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Broad Street Chambers 1929

Broad Street Chambers, 1929

Broad Street, Birmingham. Well known today for being somewhere to go for entertainment, nightclubs, hotels, eating and drinking. It was a little different in the 1920s. In 1929, Broad Street was known more for insurance companies, typewriter repairs, tailors and charitable organisations.

The photograph shows the site, today, of Alpha Tower and the old Central TV studios. The land around the Hall of Memory was then in an unfinished state. The foundation stone of the Hall of Memory itself was laid by The Prince of Wales in June 1923.

Baskerville House was to stand, later, behind the photographer location. It hadn't yet become part of the proposed Civic Centre, which was the subject of an architectural competition launched in 1935 to design the Council and Civic offices for Birmingham.

The buildings on the corner of Broad Street and Easy Row were a collection of agencies and small shops of varying trades, a little like the Bull Ring shopping centre of the day. The buildings were known collectively as the Broad Street Chambers. This consisted of the City Chambers at numbers 318 & 319, the Holborn Chambers at number 321, the Grosvenor Chambers at number 324 and the Temple Chambers at number 325. Each set of Chambers contained offices and shops, with businesses as diverse as Estate Agents, Motor Car Agents, Masons, Tailors and Tobacconists, and many others.

One of Birmingham's cinemas at the time, the Gaumont, was just around the corner, on Easy Row, which is to the left of the image. The Central Goods Station was a little further down the road, on Suffolk Street, next to Holliday Street.